Do you home dye your hair?

[Wishmeloveawishingwellkissandtell]

If so, why and what colour?

I used to do it for fun when younger, but now at 48 have a fair few greys so will do again, does it look natural?

I dye my hair at home. Does it look great? Honestly no. But neither does dye at the salon. I wouldn't mind paying for the salon if I loved the results, but it usually isn't very good. Even if I go with a recommended or expensive hairdresser. I normally leave with dye on my forehead*, colour too dark or highlights looking weird - just some of the disappointments I've had over the years.

Add to that it's such a chore and takes hours, it's at least ten times the cost, and has to be repeated every 4-6 weeks.

*Question: why do hairdressers put the dye so far down on your forehead, causing the light hairs at the front to get dyed also? When I home dye, I use a brush to lightly blend those hairs. But hairdressers don't do that and it looks weird.

Last time at a salon I had a horrible alergic reaction and had to see a doctor/dermatologist. That was over 20 years ago. I have used box dye since with very natural results. I have gone from very dark brown, to auburn, to copper red, to dark blonde, to light blonde and am now rocking platinum blonde. Used Nice n Easy which is tonal rather than block colour and have basically worked my way through their colour chart. Over the years I have had many compliments on my hair which I suspect is probably 100% gray now 😉

I'm 35 and I've been colouring my own hair since I was 16. I started because I couldn't find any salons that did the bright pillarbox red I wanted - I think back then the vivid colours weren't very mainstream - so they most they could offer was a kind of auburn colour. I used to buy the dye from my local 'goth shop' 😂

Since then I've just carried on. It's cheaper and I don't have to deal with the social anxiety of sitting in the hairdressers making small talk (I'm autistic). I go to a salon once or twice a year for a cut and that's it. I've been just about every colour under the sun, but I'm currently a dark cherry colour - always been a sucker for red 😍

I stopped colouring mine pre covid in the hope it would quickly go full grey. It hasn't. I'd call it dirty dishwater right now. This thread has inspired me to have another go with the home dyes. My natural color was auburn. I have no idea which colour to go for now. Inspiration welcome.

My Husband dyes my hair for me & has done for over 25 years. He's really good at it. I have straight mousy hair & dye it dark brown. Saves me a fortune.

I have a hairdresser who comes to the house and and gives me tubes of professional colour and developer which I use between her visits. I just do the roots and the hairline at the front and it works fine.
During Covid I did use retail box colours and my hair ended up in pretty poor condition, despit my using good shampoos and the right conditioners.

I dye mine, have done for years. Different colours (auburn, brunette, blonde) because it’s not something I’m trying to hide.am currently in my blonde phase because my hair is going grey but I’m not ready for that.

I don’t do it as often as I should so sometimes my roots are a bit visible but never imho terribly so.

I don’t go for the cheapest dyes. Most recently I tried Naturtint but won’t use it again as my hair took ages to get back to normal. I prefer Casting Crème Gloss or John Frieda precision foam colour.

Attempting to dye your hair at home never looks as good as a salon tint. It makes a mess, the colour is too dense and it's not worth it. Yes it costs more than in a salon, but they are professional and far better than doing a botch job at home, yes guilty previously but wouldn't attempt this now. Lesson learned.

I do my own hair because it’s pretty easy to do - curly (so easy and forgiving to trim) and I bleach the roots before slapping on a red semi permanent dye every few weeks. It costs me £12 every 6-7 weeks. I also don’t like the small talk.
If I had straight hair or wanted complex styles like balayage, I’d use a hairdresser because I think they’d be better at that.

I’ve always dyed mine at home since I started going white (seemed to skip the grey). I’m 46 and if I didn’t dye my hair, it would all be white. I don’t care if I live to 95; I am going into the ground with brown hair.

I just can’t afford to go and get it done. It’s about £80 here. I would need to go every 6 weeks. I can’t afford that.

I used to bleach mine and then put a toner on. Now I just put a toner on. Medium ash blonde although it looks more like a dark blonde. It lightens with the bleach underneath but looks quite natural.

I can’t justify the money or the time for the hairdresser which last time I had it done was £120!

Yes, I dye mine blue black. I do my own hair cuts too. My hair is curly though which I think is much more forgiving if it goes a bit wrong as it's much easier to hide

I only do mine between hairdresser visits, she provides the dye for me to use and I do the roots in the centre parting and on the front hairline. I use a lower percentage peroxide than she does, so the roots are less obvious and blend in with the rest of my hair which fades slightly between her visits.

I do my roots at home now after prices went through the roof post-covid. My greys need done ideally every 4 weeks so I now use the same products my previous hairdresser at headmasters used. I buy Redken colour gel laquers at Sallys. £20 for the colour and that gives me enough for 3 treatments. £20 for the activator/20 volume bleach which is a massive bottle and I’ve yet to buy a new one after 1.5 years of doing my own hair. Sooo much cheaper than £60 at the salon every 5 weeks to cover the greys. I was also stretching the spacing between colours longer than I’d like because of the expense so now I do it more often before my roots start to look bad, I have medium brunette hair. No demarkation line for me, I just matched the shade/level of colour to what my previous hairdresser used. I’m late 30s and about 30% grey without the dye, feel grey hair would age me before my time!

Totally disagree with this if you use the right products - I use the same Redken products as headmasters (see my previous post) so it’s not dense or obviously a DIY job. I think box dyes can look like you describe, but better quality dyes are available in places like Sallys!

I also disagree, home dyes have moved on a lot and as long as you match tone carefully and don’t leave it on too long, then generally they are multi tonal and very hard to distinguish from a hairdressers.

I do mine at home.

I was not impressed with what I was getting at the hairdressers for silly price.

I found that Loreal's "Nudes" hair dye work well for me and use the blond shade. No ammonia but covers white hair well.

I have my hair cut regularly as I have a short, sharp bob but will not have my colour done there anymore.

I totally disagree. I has so many instances of being unhappy with what various hairdressers did that I chose to colour my hair at home and I am much happier with the result and it also lasts longer than what I was getting at the salon.

It might be different if someone wants a drastic change like going blonde when you have dark hair but for simply covering white hair with a similar shade home dye products are perfectly fine.

I just offered my opinion on my experience, no need to ''totally disagree"' as you didn't see my salon tint and my amateur one. Well done if your home tint was OK but home tint is not something I personally recommend that's all.

I always use home dye and I'm happy enough with it. I dye mine a muted red at the moment although I've done blond and brunette before too.
My hair is that mousey wishy washy colour naturally which I hate but it does have the advantage of hiding roots and grey quite well!

My naturally very dark brown hair started going grey in my late teens, so I started home colouring after I’d finished all my university interviews. First colours were bright blue highlights and then pillarbox red! This was in 1981. I’m now 62 and have used every brand going, and lots of colours. I started with punky black, then got progressively lighter, and now that I must be mostly grey, I’m a baby doll blonde which I love. I use Josh Wood dye, which is sent to me on subscription. It comes with a ‘shade shot’ which adds tones so it’s not a flat colour. I always get compliments even from my hairdresser! Who actually trained Josh as it happens. I must have saved myself thousands of pounds over the decades by doing it myself. Go for it!

My treat to myself is my colour /hilights and cut at the hairdresser. I spend a lot of money on others (as many parents and grandparents do). For me, it looks so much better than a box colour although I appreciate that box colours can look good on others.
I am very appreciative of being able to afford it as I have had crippling financial circumstances in the past.

I used to, and I liked the results.

I got to the point where I felt a bit too long in the tooth to pull off the colour I was using, so I had a radical haircut and grew it back gray. Now that I'm S&Pish gray I'm considering blondey highlights to give it a bit of dimension. I will do that myself after watching a few online tutorials if I can find some.

I've home dyed my hair for years now. I switched to John Frieda's Precision Foam a couple of years ago and it was a game changer for me. You make up the mixture and then squeeze the foam out of the bottle and just place the foam on your hair. It doesn't drip and is so much easier to use. It gives good coverage too and it's one of the only dyes I've used that doesn't make my long hair too tangled when trying to rinse it out.
I use Medium Red Brown and it's a much nicer shade than some reds I was using a few years ago.

I use e-salon, & I love it! Costs me around £27 a treatment & I do it every 8 weeks. They provide an initial custom colour, then you can adjust it with their colourists (actual people). The application technique results in a very natural looking blended colour. It is actually better than a number of salon colourings I have had in the past, plus you are at home, so you can get on with other things. Started during Covid & I never looked back!